Dyer joined the Magpies from Ipswich Town for £6 million in 1999 and went on to make 250 appearances for the club before his departure eight years later.

Prior to the injury problems which would mar the latter days of his career, Dyer built a reputation at St. James' Park as one of England's most exciting attacking midfield prospects, and won 33 England caps during his time on Tyneside.

His decision to leave the club in 2007 after what had been the most prolific goalscoring season of his career was a surprise for many Magpies supporters, and Dyer has now revealed the reasoning behind his decision to move south to join West Ham.

The 37-year-old told the Chronicle: "It was a couple of things. I’d been up here nine seasons and I’m from down south. West Ham at the time had their Icelandic owners brought in and were spending big.

"But what really changed my mind was we played Watford in my last ever Newcastle game. We were doing a warm-up with our fans and the fans sang everybody’s name, except me and Stephen Carr. They made a point not to sing our names. I just thought ‘they’re tired of me now’.

"People like Antoine Sibierski were getting hero’s welcomes, and I’m getting hammered. I can remember I scored in the Watford game, but I sat in the changing room afterwards and I thought to myself, ‘I know we’ve got a new manager coming, but the fans are tired of me now and they don’t want me here’. I wanted to leave, the time had come."

The star, generally largely popular with Newcastle's fanbase, endured terrible luck following his move to Upton Park as his final years were ruined by injury problems.

Dyer managed just 51 matches in six years after his move out of Tyneside, before he was ultimately forced into retirement in 2013.

Tom Nightingale

After starting to write about football due to lack of any great ability on the pitch, Tom is an NCTJ-qualified sports reporter who has written for Swansea City, the Birmingham Mail, and numerous other publications. An avid Aston Villa fan, he still hasn't got over them not turning up in the 2015 FA Cup final.